We’re not getting slammed by Jonah’s blizzard like states farther north are, but we do have very cold temps and a tiny dusting of snow. Enough that I worked from home yesterday and the rest of the city ground to almost a standstill. As per usual, everyone on social media was griping about lines at the grocery store and a dearth of bread and milk. Luckily, when you’re doing a Whole 30 you don’t have to worry about that! I had Andy pick up an extra dozen eggs on Thursday evening and called myself prepared.

This week had some rough days FO SHO. I finally got my butt back in gear to exercise before work, which revved up my appetite. Plus I just started getting bored and tired of cleaning the kitchen so much.

Luckily on Day 20 I had planned a happy hour for some women at work and picked True Food Kitchen as our venue, knowing I’d be able to find something to eat (or at least drink). It was exactly the boost I needed 2/3 of the way through this journey. I drank a kale juice concoction as my “cocktail” and shared the crudite and roasted vegetable platters with another co-worker who’s doing the Whole 30. The fun options and the good company perked me right up.

Day 15

• Breakfast: egg bake, Aidell’s chicken & apple sausage, banana
• Lunch: leftover Italian pork and cauli rice, 1/2 an avocado
• Snack: 1/4 cup cashews, lemon La Croix, cantaloupe
• Dinner: zoodle ramen with sliced pork, mushrooms, and a soft boiled egg (so good! Recipe to follow.), 2 mandarin oranges
• Snack: spoonful of almond butter (I was peckish and we were out of Lara Bars.)

I got up and did a workout from my Couch 2 5K app in the gym in my building! Wahoo. Today’s challenge was procuring a cookie cake for work that I couldn’t eat. The warm and comforting dinner on a dreary day made up for it, though.

Day 16

• Breakfast: egg bake, Aidell’s chicken & apple sausage, 2 mandarin oranges
• Snack: coconut milk latte
• Lunch: pulled pork on salad with avocado, hard boiled egg, carrots, and salsa; 1 apple
• Snack: 1/4 cup cashews, banana
• Dinner: Turkey-Sweet Potato chili, avocado, side salad

It was slim pickin’s by this day, as I was planning to grocery shop the next day! We made it, though.

Day 17

• Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs with canned salmon and mushrooms, 2 mandarins, coconut milk latte
• Lunch: leftover beef chili, celery & sugar snap peas with Trader Joe’s guacamole
• Snack: 1/4 c cashews, banana
• Dinner: Turkey stuffed bell pepper, Trader Joe’s frozen grilled cauliflower, kale with apple cider dressing
• Snack: Rooibos tea, Cashew Cookie Lara Bar

I like stuffed bell peppers, but I think I didn’t quite get enough protein in tonight, as I felt hungry very shortly after dinner. In fact, that ended up being sort of the story of the rest of the week: feeling hungry. That was a new problem, after starting to feel like I needed to eat less last week.

Day 18

• Breakfast: pumpkin custard, apple, black tea
• Lunch: leftover stuffed pepper, kale salad, carrots & sugar snap peas with guacamole
• Snack: Lara Bar, mandarin orange
• Dinner: steak, mashed potatoes, green beans

I worked from home in the morning and then went to volunteer on an MLK Day service project. It made me realize that snacking on the go under Whole 30 guidelines is difficult! I pretty much had to bring a Lara Bar. I know there are other things, but I didn’t have any on hand because I haven’t needed them. There were all kinds of tempting snacks at the service project, but I stuck with a mandarin.

I think Andy must have been feeling the lack of protein, too, or maybe just food boredom, because he texted while he was out running some errands to ask if I minded if he picked up a steak for dinner. It was a nice treat to fix an alternative dinner.

Day 19

• Breakfast: pumpkin custard, banana
• Snack: apple with almond butter
• Lunch: spaghetti squash with meat sauce, kale with dressing
• Snack: 1/4 c cashews, 2 mandarin oranges
• Dinner: beef stir fry, cauli rice, broccoli
• Snack: leftover mashed potatoes

Maybe the roughest day of them all. I don’t think the pumpkin custard on its own had enough protein to be satisfying, but I hadn’t bought enough eggs to have a hard-boiled one alongside. I was excited about the beef stir fry in the crockpot, but when I got home and looked at it I was pretty unappetized. (It ended up tasting fine, just wasn’t a looker.) Plus the kitchen was still a mess from the night before (cooking meat in good fats makes a lot of splatter!) and I just wanted to call it quits. Luckily for my willpower there were no other options. :) I needed something comforting after dinner and went with a bowl of mashed potatoes. It actually hit the spot.

Day 20

• Breakfast: pumpkin custard, hard boiled egg, banana
• Snack: apple with almond butter
• Lunch: leftover stir fry with cauli rice, broccoli
• Snack: 1/4 c cashews, 2 mandarin oranges
• Happy Hour: kale juice, crudite, roasted veggies
• Dinner: Italian chicken soup

Day 21

• Breakfast: egg bake (I had to cook it last night at 10PM!), prosciutto, 2 mandarins, Earl Grey tea
• Lunch: Italian chicken soup, mashed potatoes (I stirred them into the soup!), cantaloupe
• Snack: 1/4 c cashews, banana
• Dinner: Trader Joe’s frozen turkey burger with guacamole and fried egg, sweet potato wedges, kale with dressing (Oh, and a second plain turkey burger.)

I hit the protein mark a bit better today and felt much more satisfied. The dinner didn’t even make me feel like I was missing a dern thing by eating Whole 30! The TJ frozen burgers cook up really nicely and are super cost effective ($3.99 for 4 turkey burgers or $6.99 for 4 angus beef). I also want to try the chili lime chicken burgers! I bet I’ll continue to keep these on hand even come February 1 (although I hate driving to Trader Joe’s).

What’s the best thing you ate this week? If you’re doing the Whole 30, what are you most looking forward to adding back in at the end?

Well, I’m sitting on the downhill side of halfway finished with this Whole 30! I had a couple of days lately of food boredom, and it was pure stubbornness that kept me going. Honestly, though, at this point it is feeling pretty much like a habit to cook, eat, and meal plan this way. Here’s how Week 2 went down.

Day 8

• Breakfast: leftover baked eggs and mushrooms, leftover roasted cabbage (yep, I’ve become that peson who doesn’t mind eating weird stuff for breakfast), 1 mandarin
• Snack: banana with almond butter (ther serving of eggs + mushrooms was pretty small)
• Lunch: Carnitas salad from Chipotle with salsa and guacamole (I needed a dang break), baby carrots, green bell pepper slices, La Croix
• Snack: 1/4 cup mixed nuts
• Dinner: Salsa verde chicken tenders, coconut oil roasted carrots, green beans, 1/2 an avocado

I felt a little guilty for spending $10 on lunch out when I literally could have made the same salad with stuff I had at home, but it was a nice breather. (Heads up, if you’re going to Chipotle the carnitas are the only meat option not cooked in a non-compliant oil.) The roasted carrots I threw together for dinner were FANTASTIC and I’ve actually made them again since then. We met some friends at a bar for a birthday, and I enjoyed a couple of glasses of club soda.

Day 9

• Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs with coconut milk, 2 mandarins, black tea
• Snack: Coconut milk latte (Okay, so this is a little bit SWYPO, but I had gotten up and gone to spin class for the first time in AGES. Plus I drank it as a snack, knowing it was calories.)
• Lunch: Italian chicken soup, leftover roasted carrots
• Snack: veggies with pseudo-guacamole (avocado smashed with salsa and lime juice), 3 leftover chicken tenders with salsa, 1 navel orange
• Dinner: 6 oz steak (YUM), mashed potatoes with ghee and coconut milk (white potatoes are legit now!), green beans
• Snack: Applie Pie Larabar

I woke up feeling FANTASTIC on this day, and it was great to get back to exercising after far too long a hiatus. We went to a friend’s house for her birthday party, which consisted of…a macaroni and cheese bake-off. Womp womp. I brought along some cut up veggies so there would be something Andy and I could eat. I think I underestimated how hungry I’d be from spin class, though, because by the time we got home I was RAVENOUS and chowed down on some chicken tenders. Our friend was super sweet and had lots of beverage options to make sure everyone had something they could enjoy.

Andy made his first steak tonight, inspired by these directions. It came out a little more done than he likes, but I thought it was DELICIOUS. We’re definitely going to do this again.

Day 10

• Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs with coconut milk (low and slow, baby), 1 cara cara orange, chai tea
• Lunch: 4 chicken tenders with salsa, leftover mashed potatoes (even yummier today!), green beans, cabbage
• Snack: 1/4 cup walnuts, peppermint tea
• Dinner: Trader Joe’s angus beef burger on greens with fried egg and salsa, sliced red bell peppers and cucumbers, sweet potato wedges

I think I might be mildly allergic to walnuts. I’ve never noticed it before, but having been eating some snacks of only walnuts it seems like my throat gets a little scratchy. I stopped snacking on them for a few days and felt fine, and then having them again today made me notice it. Not so much that I will avoid them in things, but I won’t eat them like this on their own, probably.

I baked about a million chicken tenders on Friday because that’s how many were frozen in the bag and I couldn’t separate them. I thought it was overkill, but having them leftover has made this weekend’s eating a breeze.

For the yummy sweet potato wedges, I actually used a Paula Deen recipe but subbed coconut oil for the butter. I had hoped they’d be crispier. I might try this again and bake them on a rack instead of the pan.

Day 11

• Breakfast: egg bake with Aidell’s Chicken and Apple Sausage, 2 mandarins
• Lunch: leftover burger and egg with salsa on salad greens, sweet potato wedges
• Snacks: 1 apple, 1/4 cup nuts, 2 chicken tenders
• Dinner: Chili, 1/2 an avocado, cantaloupe

This day was a bit of a bummer. The free lunch at work was sandwiches, which I really love. Andy was at a work thing for dinner (they went to a steak house, which worked well for eating Whole 30!), so I was on my own. I had been really excited all day about the giant crockpot full of chili, but then neither the avocado nor the cantaloupe were quite ripe enough, so it was a little bit of a let down. The timeline says Days 10 & 11 are the hardest, the days when most people quit if they’re going to, and I was definitely feeling it.

Day 12

• Breakfast: egg bake, sausage, 2 mandarins
• Lunch: Leftover chili with 1/2 an avocado (tasted much better when microwaved with the chili!), sweet potato wedges, Pamplemouse La Croix
• Snacks: 1 apple, 1/4 cup nuts *Dinner: Broccoli slaw chicken stir fry, green beans, butternut squash soup

I’m trying really hard not to simply replace my lunchtime Diet Coke with a lunchtime La Croix. I mean, I know it’s still better for me, but it seems to fly in the face of the spirit of the Whole 30. But man, do I enjoy it.

Dinner was quick and easy, but tasty. I’m thankful I had the foresight to make that big batch of butternut squash soup and freeze it in portions, because they’ve been great for rounding out meals that didn’t seem quite substantial enough.

I went to our traditional Tuesday night trivia game at a Mexican restaurant and managed not to eat the chips and salsa. For whatever reason, be it the soda gun or my changing taste buds, the club soda I had tasted particularly bubbly and delightful. Plus, we won the game!

Day 13

• Breakfast: egg bake, sausage, 2 mandarins, Earl Grey tea
• Lunch: leftover stiry fry, 1/2 an avocado, butternut squash soup
• Snack: 1/4 cup nuts, banana, herbal tea
• Dinner: baked salmon, zoodles, roasted carrots

I’m finding I really enjoy eating the same thing for breakfast every day and will likely continue batch cooking something like I’ve been doing even beyond the end of the Whole 30. I was disappointed in the salmon I made for dinner, as I often am when I make it at home. It seems like it’s really hard to catch it before it just gets too dry.

Day 14

• Breakfast: egg bake (I made a second one on Wednesday night to replenish), sausage, 2 mandarins, chai tea
• Lunch: salmon, avocado, and leftover roasted carrots on butter lettuce with oil and vinegar, 1/4 cup cashews, Lime La Croix
• Snack: apple, hard-boiled egg, peppermint tea
• Dinner: Crockpot Italian pork with diced tomatoes served over cauliflower rice, roasted broccoli

I wanted a latte SO BAD this morning. Every time I saw someone on my way to work carrying a paper to-go coffee cup, my mouth was practically watering. It’s definitely starting to seem like I need less to eat, though. Or more specifically, that I’m needing to eat less frequently. And when I do get hungry, I’m able to hold out longer if I have to before I get to frantic hunger levels. Today I was organizing a lunch and learn at work (yep, ordering food you won’t get to eat is a challenge) and the food was running late, so I didn’t get to eat my salad until about halfway into it, and I felt okay.

Freezer Goods Used:

• Salsa Verde Chicken Tenders
• Trader Joe’s packaged burgers
• Chili
• Salmon
• Pork Loin

My pre-stocked supply is rapidly dwindling. Let’s just say doing this challenge is a departure from my normal frugal shopping. I’ll be WAY over my typical grocery budget by the end of the month. It makes me a little panicky to see the freezer so empty. We’ll make it–I’ll just have to swallow my frugal pride and spend some money.

Well, 1 week of the Whole 30 down, ~3 to go! I already wrote about Day 1 here, but I’ll round out the rest of the week for posterity.

Day 2

• Breakfast: 1 serving pumpkin custard, chai tea
• Lunch: leftover egg roll in a bowl, green beans sauteed with coconut oil, 1/2 an avocado
• Snack: 1/4 cup walnuts, 1 apple
• Dinner: pork loin with mushrooms, baked sweet potato slices, spinach salad with toasted pecans and lemon vinaigrette

I felt crummy this day, with a headache and a bit of an upset stomach, much like predicted on the Whole 30 timeline. I didn’t eat breakfast for quite awhile after I woke up and, when I did, I skipped the hard boiled egg that I had intended to include because I wasn’t feeling hungry. Once I ate, though, I did feel a bit better, and I went about my day normally.

Day 3

• Breakfast: 1 hard-boiled egg, an orange, chai tea
• Breakfast snack: 3/4 serving of pumpkin custard
• Lunch: leftover pork loin with mushrooms
• Snack: black tea, olives
• Dinner: zoodles with meat sauce, broccoli, 1 kiwi
• Midnight snack: Cashew Cookie Larabar

I still was not feeling hungry at all this day, so I ate my breakfast in stages. I made myself eat at lunch time because I was feeling woozy, though still not really hungry. And then unfortunately I could NOT sleep, so I scrounged for a midnight Larabar.

It was exciting to use my new spiralizer, though, and the zoodles were a hit, even with my husband who does not normally like zucchini.

Day 4

• Breakfast: egg bake with mushrooms and spinach (1 dozen eggs, beaten, poured over sauteed veggies and baked for ~20 minutes. Makes 6 servings.), 2/3 Aidell’s Chicken & Apple Sausage (the pack had 4, so I cut each one into thirds so I could divide them evenly into our 6 breakfast containers), 2 small mandarin oranges, black tea
• Snack: 1 apple, celery sticks, 2 tbsp almond butter
• Lunch: giant salad (there are other veggies hiding under that spring mix!), 1 sliced chicken breast, butternut squash soup, Lemon La Croix
• Snack: 1/4 cup walnuts, 2 slices Applegate turkey rolled in 2 romaine lettuce leaves
• Dinner: 1/2 small sweet potato, broccoli, 1 cup cauliflower rice, chicken tikka masala

This was my first day back at work after the holidays, and I felt like I had to pack the entire refrigerator for us! I was ravenous most of the day. We have La Croix in the fridge at work and that lemon one tasted SO GOOD. I also was feeling really weirdly nervous, kind of fluttery. The internet led me to believe it might have been from the coconut, from the high protein diet, or simply from making a dramatic diet change. Thankfully, it passed. Andy wasn’t feeling hungry for dinner at all this night.

Day 5

• Breakfast: egg bake, 2/3 Aidell’s Chicken & Apple Sausage, 2 small mandarins, black tea
• Lunch: leftover chicken tikka masala, 1 cup cauliflower rice, 1/2 a sweet potato
• Snack: banana, 1/4 cup walnuts, sugar snap peas, turkey-lettuce wrap
• Dinner: Sauteed shrimp with broccoli slaw, cucumber, bell peppers, 1 kiwi
• Snack: herbal tea, Cashew Cookie Larabar

I didn’t need a morning snack this day, but then I felt like I grazed all afternoon! I had a Larabar after dinner because I was nervous about not being able to sleep again, as dinner was on the lighter side. It was a winning super simple recipe though! I just threw one package of pre-shredded broccoli slaw into a skillet with some coconut oil and coconut aminos, and added the shrimp for a few minutes until they cooked through. Yum!

I was feeling a little sniffly and realized I hadn’t been taking my Zyrtec. It has corn starch in it, but, I think I need it, and the Whole 30 forums say that call is up to you, so I went for it.

Day 6

• Breakfast: egg bake, sausage, 2 small mandarins, chai tea
• Lunch: Leftover shrimp and broccoli slaw over salad greens with Trader Joe’s salsa verde as dressing, 1/2 an avocado, cut-up veggies, Lemon La Croix
• Snack: apple with 2 tbsp almond butter, walnuts, herbal tea
• Dinner: Italian chicken soup, roasted cabbage with lemon & olive oil

I was suuuuuper tired this afternoon, right on time, according to the timeline. It was a chilly day, and all day at work I looked forward to coming home to my warm soup in the crockpot. It was really simple and really tasty. Would make again!

Day 7

• Breakfast: 1 banana with almond butter, 1 hard-boiled egg, black tea
• Lunch: leftover soup and cabbage
• Snacks: 1/4 cup Back to Nature Almonds, Cashews, & Pistachios, peppermint tea, 1 mandarin orange, 2 meatloaf muffins
• Dinner: baked eggs on mushroooms, zoodles and shredded carrots sauteed in olive oil, butternut squash soup

I woke up feeling really bleh on Day 7 and decided to work from home. I’m very thankful I have the flexibility to do that! I felt re-engergized by the next morning.

Freezer goods used:

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 pack meat sauce
• chicken tikka masala
• 1 lb shrimp
• 4 meatloaf muffins

And that’s a wrap! I’ve been Instagramming up a storm if you’re interested in more photographic detail. It has been a fair amount of work so far, but I’ve been telling myself this is just my hobby for a month–prepping food and keeping the kitchen clean. And, to be honest, I’m having a blast! It’s been fun tapping into my creative juices to meal plan and pack food for the day. Plus (spoiler alert!), I woke up on Day 9 feeling FANTASTIC. More on that next week.

Hello, my name is Laura, and I’m doing a Whole 30. Yes, that was me who tried to do it almost three years ago and bailed out after a week. But with more cooking and meal planning experience under my belt, I’m hoping to approach it better this time around.

I can’t pinpoint exactly why I feel so compelled to give it a go. I think it’s related to why I continue trying to be a runner: I feel like I should be able to. (I wrote almost a thousand words about it back then and you should read them.) I also know that I am addicted to sugar. The more of it I eat, the more of it I want to eat!

Anyway, all that to say, I took the bull by the horns and planned to start a Whole 30 on this, the most cliche of days.

I worked my BUTT off leading up to today, planning, shopping, and prepping foods for the freezer that I hope will make the 30 days feel more doable. (I had the week off of work and spread the prep over several days. I wouldn’t recommend this as an all-in-one day freezer cooking plan because I literally don’t think there’d be enough time to get it all done! But over a few days it was doable.)

I hit up Aldi, Trader Joe’s, Kroger, and Whole Foods for a few things I couldn’t find anywhere else. PSA that the produce at Aldi is CHEAP! So I may continue going there for some things that I know I’ll be buying a LOT of throughout this month, like bell peppers, sweet potatoes, and avocados.

Here’s what I bought at each store:

And here’s what I made:

• Cauliflower Rice in the food processor (4x quart-sized freezer bags)
• Baked Chicken Breasts (sliced and frozen in individual bags, for salads)
• Breakfast Pumpkin Custard (will serve us for 3 days)
• Chili (Beef is browned and ready to dump everything in the crockpot.)
• Meatloaf Muffins (Baked and ready to be thawed and heated.)
• Turkey Meat Sauce (Just browned some ground turkey, simmered it in compliant pasta sauce from Trader Joe’s, and divided into quart-sized bags. Will serve with zucchini noodles.)
• Salsa Verde Chicken (Uncooked–ready to thaw and bake.)
• Beef Stir Fry (Ready for crockpot.)
• Butternut Squash Soup (Frozen in individual containers ready to supplement lunch-time salads.)
• Chicken Tikka Masala
• 1 dozen hard-boiled eggs
• Sliced Veggies (cucumber, celery, bell peppers)

Um. I’m sort of tired just typing all of that.

I also made sure to plan for Friday and Saturday’s meals, since I typically shop on Sunday. So I’ll regroup with a plan for next week then.

I took great inspiration from The Lazy Girl’s Guide to the Whole 30 and this Must-Have Pantry Items list when I was shopping, and I’ll certainly be approaching things differently this time around. Namely, batch-cooking breakfasts and planning dinners that make leftovers for lunch.

Here’s what today looked like:

A photo posted by Laura L. (@lclindeman) on Jan 1, 2016 at 4:42pm PST

The pumpkin custard was a winner. Really yummy, and neither Andy nor I were hungry until lunch time. A simple salad with a can of tuna and quick lemon vinnaigrette for lunch, walnuts and an orange for a snack, and Eggroll in a Bowl for dinner. Also yummy! I used coconut aminos for the first time. They tasted sweeter than soy sauce, but not bad.

I’m feeling mostly okay, though I have a bit of a headache which I’m not convinced has anything to do with my eating. I’ve been satisfied by my meals and was able to pinpoint at one point that I wanted to eat out of habit, not because I was hungry, and forego grazing for the time being, which felt like a small win.

I discovered on Facebook today that another friend and her husband (with whom I happen to work) are also embarking on the Whole 30 journey, so it will be nice to have someone else local along for the ride!

Any of you virtual friends kickstarting the year with a Whole 30 or making any other New Year’s eating changes? Follow along this month for plenty more healthy recipes and reflections.

After a lackluster display in November, my reading has been back on point in December. I’m sitting at 73 books read for the year, and just checked out my 74th from the library, which I may finish by midnight tonight (but I may not). I am at peace with this state of affairs. (Oh, I have another iron in the fire as well, but I’m leaning toward abandoning it.)

Here’s what I read in December:

A long read, but a good one! Vampires, a bookish witch, and romance set at Oxford is a pretty winning combination. Though, one Goodreads reviewer described it as “Twilight for adults,” and I definitely got that feeling at a few points myself. I’m not rushing out to read the rest of the books in the trilogy, but I probably will eventually.

You know I had to read this latest release from Judy Blume! It was different from her teen novels that I devoured back in the day and I’d only describe it as “okay.” The real story it was loosely based on was fascinating, though, and I thought it was neat to read a novel that was clearly a means for the author to process something she needed to process personally.

Also only “okay,” but it was a fun, light read to get me in the Christmas spirit. As with The Hurricane Sisters, the only other Frnk novel I’ve read, it irked me to no end how so many lines of dialogue started with the name of the other member of the conversation as a question. Super annoying.

The final book for my Read Harder challenge! A short one to satisfy the “book published before 1850” task. And, I have to admit, I actually quite enjoyed it! I obviously knew the story of A Christmas Carol, but there were some lovely phrasings in the original.

Eh. That’s about all I have to say here.

Another “eh” (but I think I got it for free one day). If I’m going to read Christian romantic fiction I’ll stick to Francine Rivers, I think.

After being underwhelmed by Moyes’ follow-up to Me Before You, I was pleased to find this one right back on par! And a little bit sexier, to boot. Though it took a large dose of willing suspension of disbelief to swallow the main plot element, everything else about it was lovely. Will there be a sequel to this one too?!

I have a list of books to read for professional development, of which this was one. I’ve been chipping away at it since September. As with many non-fiction books, I loved the concept but felt like it fell flat in the book format. Could have done with a blog post or series of posts to tell me the same thing. Not cohesive enough to keep my interest. And the last few pages felt like an advertisement. But I have some takeaways, for sure.

So, another 8 book month! That seems to be about my upper bound, and usually involves a decent amount of fluff when I hit it.

Now for the year’s recap!

I completed Book Riot’s first-ever Read Harder challenge (and am sporting the t-shirt today to prove it!).

This was a lot of fun to do, and I read some winners, for sure! On the A+ would recommend list are: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew Bergman, The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee, and The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine.

We also had a great year for my book club.

This January marks three years since my book club’s first read, Wolf Hall, and I could not be more thankful to have this group of women in my life! Interestingly, the makeup of the group has almost entirely shifted since then due to people moving away & being busy, but each and every one of them is special to me.

This year’s favs were The Circle by Dave Eggers, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, Wonder by R.J. Palacio (seriously, go read it right now), and Bread & Wine by Shauna Niequist.

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee was interesting to talk about, but I don’t think we’d recommend reading it. I was the only one who didn’t care for Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling. I think we mostly agreed that The Phantom Tollbooth maybe wasn’t quite as wonderful as we remembered it being when we were kids, and Death Comes to Pemberly wasn’t the most satisfying tale.

We skipped a couple of months (June, when people are busy with summer travel, and December, when people–namely me–are consumed by holiday visitors), which is fine. This is meant to be fun, not a boot camp! And in October we went to the movies. I like mixing it up with page-to-screen adaptations occasionally! One person had read Room before we went to see it. I hadn’t, and I now don’t think I will, but the movie was quite good.

So there you have it! My 2015 in books, featuring double the number I read in 2014. I’m already working on my list for Read Harder 2016, so put your thinking caps on and keep an eye out for a post soliciting recommendations!

Happy new year to you all and I’ll see you on the flip side.